'If I hadn't lost all of that weight I might not be here right now': Si King almost died from a brainaneurysm in March. Here, he and Dave Myers relive the dramatic episode

Si (left) and Dave (right) say that their dramatic weight loss is the reason they're still alive

With a lot of TV double acts there’s a suspicion that, when the cameras stop rolling, so does the ‘friendship’. That was never the case with the Hairy Bikers, perhaps our most unlikely TV foodies, who were mates for 20 years before fame beckoned and have long described themselves as more like brothers than friends.

Can you get greater proof of their bond, though, than the one emerging now, when Si King – the younger, taller one – is talking about the recent brain aneurysm that nearly killed him?

Rushed to hospital after suffering a headache he likens to being attacked with rusty nails and a hammer, he was prepared for emergency surgery. His family gathered at his bedside.

One of the first calls his wife Janey made from the hospital was to Dave Myers, his TV sidekick, who dropped everything to dash to his side.

‘Dave’s was the first hand I held after my wife’s when I came round from the op,’ says Si, 46. ‘I think I held your hand before the op too,’ says Dave, 57, as they reflect on the most dramatic chapter in their long friendship.

True to form, it isn’t long before some jokiness makes its way into the life-and-death conversation. ‘Actually there was a lot of hand-holding going on at one point,’ says Dave, reaching for Si. ‘Gerroff!’ he says.

Still, there’s no doubting how serious this was. The risk was that Si would have a stroke which, he says, ‘could have meant curtains’. ‘I’m an incredibly lucky man to even be here today to talk about it,’ he says. ‘I can’t thank the doctors and nurses enough.’

The drama unfolded in March this year, when the pair were in the middle of a book tour and preparing for their next TV jaunt – a trip to the Baltic regions. Si says he hadn’t been feeling well for some time, but had no idea of how serious things were going to get. ‘I’d been having these headaches, and just not feeling myself, but we were doing a busy tour and I didn’t think a lot of it.’

On the Friday before it happened, he and Dave had finished work and gone to the pub for a meal (‘Steak and chips,’ says Dave, who has an uncanny recall of every meal they’ve ever eaten). ‘We were both knackered,’ he says. ‘It had been a busy week.’

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The two bikers on their show back in 2007 before they lost the weight

The next morning they went to a fish market and had a bit of banter with some of the fishermen (‘And a bacon roll,’ volunteers Dave). Then they parted to spend the weekend with their respective families. That afternoon, though, Si’s dull headache started to give him problems with his vision.

‘I was at home watching the rugby and everything just started to fall off the bottom of the TV,’ he recalls. ‘I thought, “I’m in trouble here.” Then I had this searing pain – the only way to describe it was like someone was going at my head with a rusty nail and a hammer.’ The speed with which he ended up in hospital probably saved his life. Scans confirmed it was a brain aneurysm which, if untreated, could cause a massive stroke at any moment. ‘It’s an incredibly scary thing,’ he says. ‘More people die from this type of thing than survive.’

He underwent a lumbar puncture (where samples of fluid are taken from the base of the spine) and, after being stabilised, went down for emergency surgery on the Monday. It sounds terrifying. ‘It was. It’s not just the, “Am I going to die here?” thing. It’s the knowledge that even if you don’t die, you can be left with damage to the brain.’

Dave falls silent as he remembers the vigil he and Si’s family (Si has three sons, Alex, James and Dylan) kept at the hospital. ‘To see your mate lying there. It’s terrible,’ he says. ‘That night he went in, he was sick as a parrot, but conscious. They were keeping everything under control till they could get him to theatre. There wasn’t much joking then.’

They found themselves making a pact to lose weight while on one of their global culinary tours

The surgery was a success. ‘The doctors said they were pleased with how it had gone,’ says Si. ‘There was a point at which they worried they might have to do a second procedure, which would have been more serious, but they decided no. I was incredibly lucky.’

Dave’s role in all this – once the initial worry for Si’s life had passed – was, it seems, to be chief cheerleader and food-gatherer. When Si was well enough to eat, and to turn his nose up at the hospital food, Dave was dispatched to Marks & Spencer to fetch sandwiches.

When he was released from hospital, after two weeks, Dave took him out for the day – to a farm shop. ‘I sat him down and said, “Now what would you like?”’ he recalls. ‘We sat in the car afterwards with our pork pies on the dashboard. It was heaven.’

They aren’t explicit about it, but I’d put money on Dave also having been involved in another key step in Si’s rehabilitation – the first return to his motorbike. ‘Oh that was bliss,’ says Si. ‘Putting my leg over the bike for the first time was the best feeling.’ When was this, I ask? ‘I’m not telling you,’ he says. ‘The medics would go mad at me.’

The Hairy Bikers say they were speeding towards an early grave until they changed their lifestyle

Even after the initial surgery, though, there was concern for Si’s long-term recovery. ‘Quite often you get what they call “deficits” – things that just aren’t right,’ he says. He says he’s still prone to tiredness and his brain doesn’t quite function as it used to.

‘You know when you’re very busy and your head is full and you struggle for a word. It’s a bit like that. Sometimes I can feel my head is a bit scrambled. I just have to sit down and, literally, get my head together. That should continue to improve, but even if it doesn’t and it’s the only thing I’m left with, I will take it.’

He admits that he probably tried to go back to work too early. The pair had committed to film a quiz show together, but it sounds like the experience on set – their first together since Si’s illness – was something of a disaster. ‘It was too early,’ agrees Dave. fv‘Our whole thing together is about bouncing off each other, and Si’s reactions just weren’t as quick. He wasn’t right. But that passed. He just needed some more rest.’

Si’s frustration is palpable. He talks of being desperate to ‘get back into the saddle’ but not being able to. The pair decided to postpone the Baltic trip, realising that they couldn’t fake the on-screen banter. Si clearly felt guilty about this. ‘Dave took up the reins. He did meetings without me, and that was hard. You feel like you’re letting a mate down. And what he’s done this year has been incredible. He’s worked his socks off.’

Dave waves his concerns away. ‘Well, that’s why it’s great being a double act. When one is down, the other takes over. We’ve always been like that. If one of us is having a c**p day, the other one has to step up. It’s just how it goes.’

It’s an incredibly scary thing. More people die from this type of thing than survive

It seemed particularly cruel that Simon was facing such huge health issues when the pair had made a second career for themselves as the Hairy Dieters – urging middle-aged men to take stock of their lifestyles. He’d lost (very publicly) a staggering 3½ stone. Isn’t it ironic that he ended up at death’s door? Si looks at it another way.

‘There are lifestyle implications here. Aneurysms are affected by stress, and high blood pressure is an issue. But if I hadn’t lost all the weight I probably wouldn’t be here today. If this had happened when I’d been at my heaviest, when my blood pressure was through the roof, well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. It just underlines how important it is to wise up about these things.’

He’s put on ‘a stone and a bit’ since it happened, simply because an active lifestyle has been out of the question, but is now addressing that. The pair are also bringing out another cook book – featuring delicious low-fat recipes for everything from curries to steak and kidney pie – which we’re serialising in Weekend from today.

They describe it as a dieting book that doesn’t know it’s a dieting book. ‘It’s about good food that tastes great – but that just happens to be low in calories. We’ve worked hard to make sure the recipes stand on their own merit,’ says Dave. ‘I actually gave a dinner party the other night – and all the recipes came from the book. No one could tell they were eating lower calorie dishes.’

They develop the recipes, then bring dieticians in to work out how the fat or sugar content can be reduced. ‘Sometimes, if the dish is too bland or doesn’t work as well as we hoped, we discard it. But we’ve been amazed at what’s possible.’

The aneurysm has been a sobering episode for everyone – them and their families first, but also the people on the periphery – their book publishers, TV producers and those who’ve helped build the Hairy Biker brand. Is the fact that Dave went off to Egypt to do a food show on his own a sign that the Hairy Bikers may have to slow down for good?

Absolutely not, they say. ‘For our next programme we’re riding from Moscow to Copenhagen,’ says Si. ‘As soon as it was mooted I said, “I’m in”. I just have to be sensible and get myself fit for it. If anything I’m more determined than ever to get out there and live.’

The Hairy Dieters – Good Eating is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 9 October.